Brisingr Part Fifty Five
Kiss Me Sweet And yet another fruitless and pointless chapter. This time it's between Roran and Katrina. Normally they've been fairly good, but by this time, over half way through the book, I just want it to be over with now. I want it to be over with a long, long, long time ago. I want something interesting to happen, but nothing interesting happens here. It's a nice little quiet chapter. Which wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that the past two chapters have been quiet chapters with nothing exciting happening in them and now we have another chapter where nothing exciting is happening. I guess it could be called character development, but I don't think anything new has been shown. Roran wakes up at the beginning of this chapter. Saphira had just gone to sleep at the end of the previous chapter. I wonder if I should do a count to see how many wakings and sleepings there are for chapter transitions. I know it's making me sleepy to read. Up and down and up and down and up and down. ZzznzNNnnnzzznn.... *snkk* *yawn* *blinks blearily* Wha-? Eeeeeh... Right. Roran wakes up and is Thoughtful. Actually he is beyond Thoughtful and has moved into Brooding. Real Heroes Brood, after all. Thinking is for sissies. Katrina also wakes up. (Oh hey, that's two this chapter) and she wraps around him asking him what's wrong. Roran Broods. She wants to know if it's because of his getting a new captain or where Nasuada (she-who-doesn't-deserve-a-hyphen-name) will send him next. Roran continues to Brood after saying no. She was silent for a while. “Every time you leave, I feel as if less of you returns to me. You have become so grim and quiet. . . . If you want to tell me about what is troubling you, you can, you know, no matter how terrible it is. I am the daughter of a butcher, and I have seen my share of men fall in battle.” Now, that's an interesting conjunction of two phrases. First of all they're shoved together like a pair of badly conjoined twins. The way they are put together seems to indicate that since she is a butcher's daughter she sees men fall in battle. This makes me wonder, what exactly is in Sloan's meat? Do we ever see what they are exactly? I mean they are sausages nice, fat, meaty and thick sausages, but what is those sausages? Are they really man-meat? I mean really real man-meat? As opposed to the other man-meat? Not that the other man-meat isn't real man-meat. But sometimes when you don't want a sausage, you want sausage, fat and grilled. Or steamed, or wet from a pot. There are a lot of ways you can have your sausage. Inside a bun, just plain. With some spicy flavor. Is the reason why there haven't been any trouble in Carvahall because of Sloan and his manly man-meat? Has he butchered and sausaged all potential trouble? Could explain why Katrina is so blah about her father's supposed death. After all what worth is the life of man except for his potential for his sausage? Second the first part has nothing to do with the second part. Except, perhaps, the fact that they're about blood spurting? Being a butcher's daughter doesn't mean that you're used to seeing the flat slaughter of people, of killing them yourself. Roran complains that he's not a great and real warrior because he doesn't want to talk about it. Katrina reassures him that yes he is, because he does feel bad about it. “A true warrior,” she said, “does not fight because he wishes to but because he has to. A man who yearns for war, a man who enjoys his killing, he is a brute and a monster. No matter how much glory he wins on the battlefield, that cannot erase the fact that he is no better than a rabid wolf who will turn on his friends and family as soon as his foes.” She brushed his hair away from his brow and stroked the top of his head, light and slow. “You once told me that ‘The Song of Gerand’ was your favorite of Brom’s stories, that it was why you fight with a hammer instead of a blade. Remember how Gerand disliked killing and how reluctant he was to take up arms again?” I thought he fought with a hammer because he didn't know how to use a blade? And that he didn't want to be a warrior. I could have sworn that's what it was. I have no issues with Roran taking up the hammer because of the story, but at least let it be the reason the first time and not retconing it so that Katrina can tell him that he's okay, and that he's not doing it wrong. Giving him the pep talk to prevent the Heroic BSOD He's doing the Right Thing. So he shouldn't Worry. Roran continues on the line of But I'm no good and Katrina with the yes you are. And Eragon is a real warrior and no he's not because Roran goes in without magic and blah blah. Then we get this: And he placed a hand over her rounding womb. Rounding womb is a pair of words that should never be put together. Yes, Paolini I'm sure that you're going for rounding belly, but rounding womb? No. And No. and No. Womb is not a word that should be spoken unless you are discussing the health of a pregnancy or a woman. Stop being clever. You're not being clever. So, just stop it. Please. We finally get a hint of what Katrina has gone through. “Some troubles,” he said, “no one else should have to endure, especially not those you love.” She withdrew an inch or two from him, and he saw her eyes become bleak and listless, as they did whenever she fell to brooding over the time she had spent imprisoned in Helgrind. “No,” she whispered, “some troubles no one else should have to endure.” We haven't seen her fall to brooding before, she seems less broody than Roran. I think they should be a more troubled couple. Him having to deal with his feel of loosing of humanity and trying to be supportive and helpful with Katrina's post traumatic stress disorder. And she trying to help him and then dealing with the stress of being pregnant. That would be interesting. The chapter title is given to us when Roran tells her stop worrying and "kiss me sweet". I have no idea what that means, but it sounds... nice? Finally, when they go back to sleep. Oh dear God. They woke up and then went back to sleep all in one chapter. ARGH. \~/ Um so, they go back to sleep and then Roran has a dream. She laughed at him then, and kissed him most sweetly, and then they lay upon the cot as they had before, and outside the tent all was still and quiet except for the Jiet River, which flowed past the camp, never pausing, never stopping, and poured itself into Roran’s dreams, where he imagined himself standing at the prow of a ship, Katrina by his side, and gazing into the maw of the giant whirlpool, the Boar’s Eye. Now part of me wonders if this is supposed to be a prophecy dream or just a dream of the worries that's happening to Roran. It's an interesting image in my thoughts, at least. Category:Brisingr Category:Inheritance Cycle